The community came home to the Mexican Heritage Plaza last week. They came in twos and threes, and sometimes two couples. Young men with their sweethearts came, wearing white cowboy hats and freshly ironed shirts and cologne. Older couples with their arms linked came. Teenagers in the latest fashions came.

In all, 1,800 hardworking people took a night off from the stress of life on a warm Thursday night. They came home to the Plaza, to listen to a couple of bands and dance. It seemed almost like a dream – the evening was warm and a little humid and the Plaza’s decorations created a hazy backdrop of color and light.

The community came home to the Plaza last week the way they came last year and the last eight years. They came to celebrate. They came to be inspired. They came to touch the tiled portraits enshrined in the garden wall – portraits of their families, of people they don’t even know, ordinary people who built an extraordinary place.

In the next few months, the Plaza’s role in San Jose’s civic life will be re-examined as the city prepares to engage the community in a visioning process that assesses the “highest and best use” of the facility. The future of the Plaza – its use, costs and constituency – will be re-imagined and examined. As this process takes place, the Plaza’s current uses probably will provide some surprising insights.

Most people know that in addition to visual- and performing-arts events, the community uses the Plaza for different purposes, such as Mexican weddings and quinceañeras. Not everyone knows that the Plaza is also home to San Jose’s East Indian community for its wedding celebrations and coming-of-age arangetrams. The Chinese community uses our theater to present Chinese opera, the gay community has presented community events, and the Vietnamese community holds gala events. The Iranian community held its Nu Ruz Spring festival in the Plaza’s courtyard and gardens.

The Plaza welcomes many diverse communities to learn music, dance, stagecraft, healthy living, even the basics of homeownership. People come here to debate and to hold politicians accountable. They hold breakfasts and galas to mark life achievements. And they have come to the Plaza to mourn life taken prematurely.

The community comes to the Plaza to see itself reflected. Here its members may witness the story of a Mexican immigrant hailed as one the greatest contemporary artists of the 21st century. They learn a universal language of beauty through the craft of artists from almost every continent and Latin American country. And last week, the community came home to the Plaza and danced again – to the music of old Mexico’s guitars and violins and to the newer sounds of banda. Tradition and modernity intermingled amiably, weaving the same old spell that conjures romance on a warm summer night.

As we reimagine the next act of the Plaza’s future, we may ask, who is the playwright? The author of the Plaza’s story is everyone who cares about community and culture. Last week for a brief moment, la vida fue como un sueno. Life seemed as a dream. But unless everyone who cares about San Jose’s diverse cultural communities and institutions steps forward and engages in what may be the last, best hope for this venue, the hard work of turning any future dream into a feasible reality will be just that – a dream. So if you care, please contact your city council representative, dream big and get involved.

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